Digital service entrepreneurs demand for affordable, quality internet
To pay for 1 GB of internet data, Bangladeshis need to spend their income from 17 minutes of work on average, which is much higher than Turkey, Thailand, India and Indonesia, Chaldal Co-founder and CEO Waseem Alim says
To unlock the leapfrogging potential of Bangladesh, digital services should be made popular everywhere and affordability of quality internet would be the enabler of the much needed penetration, digital entrepreneurs said at a roundtable yesterday (28 October).
The roundtable titled "Leveraging Telecommunication Power for Escalating Digital Services in Bangladesh" organised by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) held in the capital
BTRC Chairman Major General (Retired) Emdad-ul-Bari presided over the meeting where ICT Division Secretary Shish Haider Chowdhury spoke as the chief guest.
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Bangladesh, despite having catchy headline numbers of mobile phone and internet subscribers, still leaves over 40% of the population unconnected while nearly 60% of the people are yet to have a smartphone and the reality drew the roundtable attention to the discussion of having a supportive telecom infrastructure like that in the digitally successful peer economies.
Representatives of nearly three dozen digital service providers, including prominent startups, said data quality and price are still a barrier to the faster nationwide adoption of digital services like e-commerce, EdTech, FinTech, Health Tech, and Travel Tech that have the power to boost the economy.
Bangladesh should eye a $2 trillion economy by 2040 and to reach there it should focus on solving infrastructure, education and skill problems, said Chaldal Co-founder and CEO Waseem Alim in his keynote, adding that Bangladesh is seeing the rise of its consumers.
To pay for 1 GB internet data, Bangladeshis need to spend their income from 17 minutes of work on average, which is much higher than Turkey, Thailand, India and Indonesia. Only a third of the mobile internet subscribers use more than 1 GB data a month here, Alim said.
"Data consumption should be significantly increased through nationwide availability of affordable, quality internet."
He further said, "Jio's revolutionary data penetration in India helped grow monthly internet consumption per user to 24 GB from 500 MB in six years and it helped grow the GDP share of digital economy to 15% from 5% there as internet users more than doubled alongside a massive rural penetration.
"Bangladesh significantly lags behind peers like India and Indonesia in terms of the size of the digital economy," he added.
Speakers, alongside removing barriers within the country's telecom ecosystem to reduce internet prices, urged for ceiling prices in mobile internet data for the sake of mass affordability.
Unlimited mobile data at Tk500 per month can be an achievable goal if the industry ecosystem is overhauled, said tech entrepreneur AKM Fahim Mashroor, a member of the Planning Ministry Taskforce.
He also suggested telecom operators' smartphone selling in instalments to boost the number of users.
Banglalink's Chief Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Officer Taimur Rahman stressed the need for telecom operators' financial strengthening for their due role and he suggested for facilitation of their digital services alongside the core business.
Representatives of a wide range of digital service providers including Daraz, Pathao, 10 Minute School, Shikho, Prava Health, Shohoj, Sheba XYZ, Share Trip, and E-courier discussed how the widely perceived high price of data dragging their growth, while many also stressed for data quality.
Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, former president of the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh, said BTRC's will for availability and affordability of various telecom services should bring positive changes.
BTRC Chairman Emdad-ul-Bari stressed the regulator's meaningful autonomy for the needed telecom reforms that can narrow down the digital divide.
ICT Secretary Shish Haider Chowdhury emphasised on the privacy, accessibility and interoperability of data alongside a wider scale of digital literacy and awareness.
"Digital divide is gradually decreasing in the country and we need a deep collaboration among the government, academia, and industry," he added.
The programme moderated by BTRC Systems and Services Division Director General Brigadier General Mohammad Khalil-Ur-Rahman was participated by all top BTRC officials including its vice chairman, commissioners and the director generals.
